Can Nassari`s pronouncements tell the other side of Chadema?

By Bituro Kazeri

13th May 2012

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Joshua Nassari

The chairman of the Chama cha Maendeleo na Demokrasia (CHADEMA), Freeman Mbowe while paying his last respects to the late Regia Mtema praised his party’s stance of upbringing potential party leaders and activists.

He went further by advising other political parties and the government to emulate that stance. He further revealed that the late Mtema was among products of the CHADEMA policy of bringing up talented future leaders and they are proud of that.

Bringing up is part of the process called socialisation which is defined as an act of imparting group values and norms to a new member of the group, which will guide his or her conduct within and outside the group.

Everyone out there has gone through the socialiszation process from birth, which makes us members of our families or new comers when we join learning institutions, new members when we join groups of various undertakings, new employees when we join new employers; the list goes on.

As pointed out above, socialization imparts values and norms of the group, the one who is socialized make use of sensory media to acquire norms and values of the group. For the grown up new member, socialization could be done even before joining and being accepted as a member of the group.

There are identified agents of socialization namely the family, media outlets, peer groups, schools and other learning institutions, religious institutions, governments and political parties, work places and closed institutions such as prisons, convents and mental hospitals.

Socialisation agents work together as a system and are responsible for the conduct of their members, should their conduct fall below expectations of the society. In the family, if the child behaves badly, the mother is often pointed at and takes the responsibility. In the society when a child misbehaves the blame is directed at the whole family, the whole clan, and even the whole tribe. The same applies to misconduct manifested by members of a peer group. In fact from the conduct of a member of the group one can easily establish or tell the norms and value of the group he or she is a member.

We appreciate CHADEMA for doing what they are actually supposed to do – socializing their members and make them responsible members of their party and the whole of Tanzanian society. CHADEMA as a political party is playing the role of political socialization, complementing other socializing agents.

We are sure that during the socialization process CHADEMA members are told what are the norms, value and code of conduct of the party. On the other hand, members of CHADEMA are exposed to conduct of older members and leaders.

They see what they are doing, hear what they are saying and how they are saying it and lastly feel their emotions. Social research findings have established that groups internalize norms by accepting them as reasonable and proper standards for behaviour within the group.

Once firmly established, norms become part of the group’s operational structure, thus becoming difficult to change. However, newcomers to a group can change a group's norms although it is much more likely that the new individual entering the group will adopt the group's norms, values and perspectives, rather than the other way around.

On the other hand, a group’s norms and values ought to be oriented to an overriding value of the larger society, in this case the whole of Tanzania. This is where the achievement paraded by CHADEMA is put to serious test.

In one parliamentary session the late Mtema told all people who were not indigenous member of Morogoro region to leave the region and go back to their native region. However, she reversed this statement the next day, but the damage had already been made.

Message sent and delivered. Subjecting this to socialization would create curiosity to critically examine the value and norms of the group- CHADEMA. Was the late Mtema saying what is normally said by members and leaders of CHADEMA behind the stage?

Last week before chairman Mbowe himself, another well brought up young man, an aspirant future leader of Tanzania hit the ground with a treasonable statement expressing the plan of ceding a part of the United Republic, named Joshua Nassari as the designated prime minister and the chairman himself a designated president. Is this what is normally said and heard in the group behind the stage?

Without hitting around the bush what happened in that meeting proves right the long time suspicious against CHADEMA,, that it is suspected and accused of regionalism masterminded by northerners from Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions.

This is exactly the new country that Joshua Nassari is creating from the United Republic. According to Nassari, the northerners do not have to worry as they have enough resources on which to survive as a country.

The statement connects dots with the decentralization policy of CHADEMA. From the statement non-northerners can see for themselves that the only reason CHADEMA is campaigning for majimbo is because their zone comprising Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions is better off than other zones.

Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions comprise areas which had early contact with Europeans who eventually came to be colonizers. At independence, the north was one of the three parts of Tanzania which had tarmac roads. The colonial government left us with the tarmac road connecting Moshi town with Arusha, Morogoro and Dar es Salaam and a third road connecting Tanga and Korogwe. Northerners took advantage of their position in the government and directed all the nation’s resources to their jimbo to become what they are now.

The northerners are manning strategic positions in our civil service which they use to manipulate social economic variables at the expense of the rest. For instance, they are dominating the tourism industry to the extent that the Tanzania National Park Authority head office is located in Arusha. Not only that, they have made sure that potentials in other region remain dead and buried.

To northerners, tourism is life and thus a northern agenda. CHADEMA in response has socialized its entire leadership to be positive to foreign investment in tourism and negative towards foreign investment in others sectors. Tourism is the only debate which can make Philemon Ndesamburo to sit the whole day in Parliament.

This position make them feel superior to the rest of us and out of that hatch a plan to go to the top position of the land - the presidency, the only position that they have not been able to hold.

If they what to enjoy the fruits of their effort should they win the presidency, the best way is for the federation system of government. The federation system of government will separate the backward region from the better off regions, mainly the permanent cash crop cultures. This is dangerous and should not be allowed to grow and mature.

The northerners need not to be reminded that they have a business gene in their blood which has made them go and establish themselves in every corner of this country as entrepreneurs. What message is Nassari sending to these entrepreneurs and others they interact with?

Should God heed their request, can the north re-accommodate all of them should they go back to their new country? Nassari and others who are nursing the same idea know that during Christmas and New Year holidays there is no traffic jam in any town in this country except in Moshi and Arusha, so you will be the clever loser and it real pain if this clever move ends up creating more problems than these you are trying to solve.

Clever old people normally use children as front men in the mind game. We are not buying this from CHADEMA. We know the CHADEMA leadership is behind whatever is said and done by their members and leaders, in particular that which was said by Nassari.

The statement was made in the forum organized and staged by CHADEMA. Nobody can buy the idea that the organizer had no clue of what is going to be said and by whom. We know whatever was said in that meeting conforms with the norms and values of CHADEMA, though unfortunately it does not conform to the value of the larger group, the whole Tanzania.

CHADEMA should take note of the conduct of Chama Cha Mapinduzi. CHADEMA won the attention of the public towards the misconduct of Livingstone Lusinde during the Arumeru East by-election. The CCM secretary general backed Lusinde, indicating the he reacted to CHADEMA misconduct, implying that Lusinde was somehow right, should one see the whole issue objectively.

CHADEMA are gaining ground in the political field, a fact that has made them feel they are on the moon. In return CHADEMA thinks and feels they can do whatever they want with impunity. They show no respect of the authority and established norms and values of our society. This is not acceptable. CHADEMA makes a farce of our decision to allow a multiparty political system in our country.

We are not used to this militancy and use of force to get things going. These are not our norms and values. CHADEMA as a group has a right to their values and norms but these values and norms must be a reflection of the whole of society’s values and norms.

Tanzania in the midst of socio-economic challenges, in which case upholding with pride the values of sovereignty, peace and unity of the country is vital, as without these values all is lost. We can not let anybody regardless of his or her popularity and any form of power play around the country, to compromise on these values, so please respect this value system.

The writer is a businessman and a Masters student currently studying sociology at Saint Augustine University of Tanzania.